peters



C. WEED.

Steering Apparatus.

Patented Dec. .8, 1857.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

CHAS. WEED, OF BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, ASSIGNOR TO HIMSELF AND STEPHEN B.CRAM, OF SAME PLACE.

STEERING APPARATUS FOR VESSELS.

Specification of Letters Patent No. 18,835, dated December 8, 1857.

T 0 all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, CHAS. Venn, of Boston, in the county of Suffolk andState of Massachusetts, have invented certain new and usefulImprovements in Steering Apparatus for Vessels, of which the followingis a full, clear, and exact description, reference being had to theaccompanying drawings, making part of this specification, in whichFigure 1 is a plan. Fig. 2 a side eleva tion. Fig. 3 a transversevertical section on the line 00, x, of Fig. 1.

A, represents the deck of the vessel, from which rise heavy blocks orstanchions B, that support the apparatus. On these blocks are firmlysecured the housings C, which are heavy castings formed of a bed piecea, and stanchions Z), rising therefrom; in the spaces between thestanchions b of the housings are placed the boxes D, these boxes arefurnished with lips c, which embrace the pieces b, but the spacesbet-ween the lips are made a little wider than the pieces Z), so thatthe boxes may have a play a short distance transversely in the housings.The boxes fit snugly between the two pieces 6 of each housing, but maybe lifted up vertically out from between-them. Two parallel screws E andF (the thread of each turning in the same direction), one placedimmediately over the other, have their bearings in the boxes D, and arefurnished with the gears G and H, which engage with each other. Theshaft of one of these screws is prolonged as at I, and a steering wheelK of the ordinary construction is attached thereto. A rectangular bar I,lying between the screws E and F and parallel to them, extends from onebox D to the other, and is secured at each end to one of the boxes; thisbar serves as a brace to hold the boxes at their proper relativedistance from each other and also as a guide to two nuts M and N, whichtravel longitudinally along it. The nut M embraces the screw E, and thenut N the screw F. As the screws turn in opposite directions, the nutswill be moved one forward and the other back as the wheel K is turned.Each of these nuts is extended laterally to one side in an arm f, theouter end of which receives the spindle e of a feather z. The spindle 6turns in the end of the arm and is secured thereto by a nut h. Each ofthe feathers g enters a slit k in the projecting part of the band 0which embraces and is firmly secured to the head P of the rudder post,thus as the nuts .M and N are moved back and forth by the screws, therudder post is turned on its axis, the feathers g sliding in the slits7c. The nuts M and N, where they rest on the bar L, are grooved as shownin Fig. 8, so that they each partially embrace the bar; this preventsany lateral strain or torsion of the nuts from being thrown upon thescrews, and causes the bar L to receive it.

I am aware that a guide bar has been used in connection with twoparallel screws placed one on each side of it, but in that case each nutcould only bear on one side of the bar, and consequently the bar couldonly receive the lateral strain of each nut in one direction; whereas inmy improved arrangement of the relative position of the screws and bareach nut embraces the bar on both sides. Some other advantages whichresult from this arrangement over all the other steering apparatus withwhich I am acquainted are, that I dispense with an intermediate gear(without moving the steering wheel away from amidships) that it ischeaper, and more compact, is easily removed by lifting the boxes D upout of the housings C. If either of the gears G or H should break, therudder could be operated by a single screw (which could not be donewhere an intermediate gear is used), and if one screw should fail, thesteering wheel K could be shifted to the other, the shaft beingprolonged as shown in red Fig. 2, for this purpose. As the rudder posthas a tendency to work aft, it is necessary that some arrangement bemade by which the apparatus may accommodate itself to the alteredposition of the rudder post, this is done by the space between the lipso of the boxes D, allowing the boxes to move aft in the housings. Thespace between the lips and the pieces 5 of the housings may be packed ornot as is found most desirable. Instead of the singlebar L, two bars maybe placed one above the upper and one beneath the lower nut, or one oneach side of the two nuts, but the arrangement described is the onewhich I prefer.

hat I claim as my invention, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

1. Placing the parallel screws E and F, arranged with the grooved nuts Mand N one immediately over the other, and con and bearing blocks Dsubstantially as set necting them by the gears H, and G; the forth.

steering Wheel being attached to one of the CHAS. WEED. screws in themanner substantially as de- Witnesses: scribed. THos. R. RoAoH,

2. I claim the stationary guide bar L as TI-IOS. L. GLoVER.

